I'm Sorry Chaton

Chapter 8

Chat Noir had two people on his mind: Hawkmoth and Mari. He was thinking about Hawkmoth because tonight was the night he planned to take him down and he was thinking about Mari because he saw how upset she was after his, well... Adrien's, death and he was wracked with guilt. He decided to deal with the latter first. He was already transformed, so he immediately ran over to Mari's balcony. He found her there, sitting on a deck chair drawing out something. 

"Hey!" Chat Noir peeked his head over the balcony railing and gave a small wave.

Marinette looked up, startled and gave a high-pitched yelp. "Hey, Chat Noir..." She quickly stuffed whatever drawing she was working into her pocket. "Umm, what's up?" Mari awkwardly looked away, refusing to meet his eyes. Chat thought it was because she was in awe of his paw-sitively purr-fect looks. Un-fur-tunately (Okay, okay. I'll stop with the puns...) he was wrong. She couldn't bear to meet his eyes for fear he would look into them and see the guilt that was weighing her down. 

Chat chuckled at the apparently shy girl. "Just checking in to see how you are." His voice turned serious. "Seriously though, I heard you lost a friend and... well, I know how that feels and I wanted to make sure you were okay."

Marinette's heart melted and for a minute she reverted back to her kind, sweet-hearted self. "Aww, thanks kitty. You didn't have to do that."

"I know, but I wanted to. So, you're really okay?" Chat gave her a concerned look.

Mari looked away again. She nodded. 

Chat knew something was wrong. "Mari, look at me--"

"Mari?" Marinette looked up at the sound of her nickname. Only one person had ever called her that- Adrien.

Chat noticed her shocked face. "Yes... that's your name, right?" Chat knew he was right. After all, he had known her for 3 years as Adrien.

Marinette pushed her nonsensical thoughts out of her head. Adrien was dead and no matter how many times she told herself otherwise, he was still six feet under. "Yeah. That's my name. It's just... someone I knew used to call me that. Well, he was the only one who called me that. You just brought back memories and it startled me. That's all."

Crap. I forgot I used to call her that. I was the only one who called her that. I'm such an idiot. Chat Noir noticed that she was more upset than when he had first arrived and realized that he wasn't helping her at all, he was just making things worse. "Sorry. I had no idea your friend used to call you that." Chat looked at his feet and fidgeted nervously. "I should probably get going..."

"No!" Marinette surprised herself by protesting. "Umm, what I mean is, don't leave yet. Please?"

A small smile crept onto Chat Noir's face. Maybe he was helping her after all. "Of course I'll stay. I'll stay as long as you want Mari... nette. Marinette." He walked over to where she was sitting and sat next to her. She pulled out her sketchpad and began to doodle while they snuggled up together on that cold Paris night. Marinette hadn't felt this feeling a long time. That night, she was truly happy. She felt normal again as she drew her designs next to Chat. 

Chat looked down and saw that Marinette was sleeping. He thought she was kind of cute when she was asleep and he smiled down at her. Gently, he picked her up and took her into her room where he tucked her into bed. 

"Goodnight, Mari. Sweet dreams."

Meanwhile, Hawkmoth was feeling very pleased with himself. He had returned home after his conversation with Ladybug feeling uneasy. Something seemed off about the deal he made with Ladybug. She wanted almost nothing in return for helping him defeat Chat Noir and he didn't understand why. He thought about it for a while and came to the conclusion that Ladybug must be manipulating him. Gabriel Agreste was nothing if not a smart man, so he soon figured out the general idea of what Ladybug was up to. Her drastic personality change from hero to villain told him that something traumatic had happened to her. Possibly, like himself, she had lost a loved one. If she had lost a loved one, that meant she was likely to be after the same thing he wanted: Chat Noir's ring. That couldn't happen. As much as he wanted to avoid a fight with Ladybug, he couldn't let her ruin all of his plans. After his son's death, he truly had nothing left to lose, so he would try until his dying breath to bring his family back from the grave.

Tomorrow he would have to handle the Ladybug situation. Unlike his son, his first instinct was always to carefully plan out everything rather than impulsively acting without rationally thinking. He sat down at his desk and began to work on a plan. A few hours later, a pile of discarded papers cluttered his desk. He was getting frustrated with himself. In every scenario he could think of, Ladybug won. Gabriel had to admit that Ladybug was cunning and smart; a formidable foe. Maybe his son had the right idea. Rushing into this, and catching Ladybug by surprise, might be the best way to defeat her. A knock on his door interrupted his thoughts.

Normally Natalie would get the door, but she had been sick recently. He was tempted to ignore the knocking, but the person at the door was persistent and annoying. Gabriel stood up. "Coming." He shouted in the general direction of the door. He reached the front door and grabbed the handle. Gabriel rarely opened the door himself, so it took him a minute to figure out how the handle opened. Almost nothing penetrated his well-guarded heart, but the face staring at him when he opened the door pierced Gabriel Agreste's heart. 

"Hello, Father."